Painting related thoughts

I have selected my competition pieces for ReaperCon 2015 but I can find a color scheme that I like. Its armored piece and I would like to try something a little more intricate with the armor plates but I can't seem to find a result that I like. I have tried NMM with some detail lines but that doesn't jump out. Even though I have tried different color schemes it still doesn't pop. I guess that I could try some true metallic colors but I'm not sure who to play that out and I have never tried doing any detailed work that way. The trick will be to make sure the freehand doesn't overwhelm the piece -- I want it to be subtle. Lucky I have a duplicate piece to practice on.